chocolate sauce!

 nothing says happy mothers day like having to plan and cook your own meals.  i guess i could have been more pushy about it, but i didn't want to.  i wanted a certain kind of beef kebab to bbq, but neither of the butchers that usually carries them had them.  actual steak is so expensive it should be a crime, so I reluctantly chose an alternative that was fine.  

dessert choosing was no better - i didn't want to make it but couldn't find any pre-made alternatives i liked, and then i didn't have the heart or the energy to make my own, so i let The Girl choose some ice cream from the store, and then last minute i decided to treat myself with some chocolate sauce for the top.

 we also had no heavy cream at home, so i needed a super simple recipe - and here it is - Homemade Chocolate Sauce from Bellyful.  A short list of ingredients you most likely have on hand, a few minutes at the stove, and boom!  you have a delicious sauce to top your store bought cookies and cream ice cream that had barely any cookies in it.  

 

 

whats going on

 look at these adorable napkins - 

 so cute for spring!

 i made this very good chicken stir fry on the weekend.  i left out the tomatos, bell peppers and mushrooms, so both kids were happy.  i was annoyed that my peas bit the dust in the fridge, but i had celery, carrots, beans, onions and zucchini.  the sauce - chicken broth, oyster sauce, honey and soy sauce.  i stupidly tried to shake some cornstarch into the sauce instead of using a spoon and put way too much in.  i tried to scoop a bunch out but that sauce thickened in 4 seconds flat once it hit the pan.

 i found this dessert on tick tok - 1 pack of sugar free jello mixed into 1 cup of boiling water.  let it slightly cool, and then whisk in 1 cup of no fat greek yogurt, and chill in the fridge.  pretty tasty.

these muffins disappeared in less than a week, which is probably a record in this house -

 savory cheese muffins.

 

my moms cheesecake recipe

 

crust

1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup melted butter

mix and press into an 8" pie plate

filling

soften an 8 oz package of cream cheese.  beat until fluffy.  gradually blend in 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 TB lemon juice, 1/2 tsp vanilla and a dash of salt.  add 2 eggs, one at a time.

pour filling into crust.  bake at 325' until set - 25-30 minutes.

topping

combine 1 cup sour cream, 2 TB sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla.  spread over pie.  bake 10 minutes longer.

cool and then chill in the fridge. 

no bake cheesecake

 we start off with a no bake biscoff cookie crust

 whizz a sleeve of cookies in the food processor until fine.  add a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup of melted butter and whiz again.  press into the bottom of your 8-9 inch pan and chill.

 

then mix your package of cream cheese, 1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup of powdered sugar, and a splash of vanilla and beat until creamy and thick.  pour over the crust, smooth and chill for at least 3-4 hours. 

perfect!

date caramel

 I made some date caramel recently and it was so easy, I wanted to share.

First, put a big handful of pitted dates in a bowl, add a big fat pinch of baking soda, and cover with boiling water.  Leave for 30-60 minutes.

Then move the dates to your food processor, add some of the date soaking water, a fat pinch of salt, and a splash of vanilla, and blend.  Blend until you can't blend any more.  Scrape down the sides occasionally, and add a touch more soaking water if needed.

I served some with ice cream as part of a small sundae bar and not only was it delicious, it was a hit!  Even with the kids!  That is a ringing endorsement.

3 recent recipes

 

 smores cupcakes

egg sausage breakfast taquitos

 puff pastry costco chicken bake

 

3 really really good (and easy) desserts - Giant Chocolate Cookie, Biscoff Cheesecake and Double Chocolate Brownies

 

Sometimes I let my family pick out desserts they'd like to try for Sunday Dinners.  Mostly I don't, because I usually want to make something fast and hopefully cheap.  But The Girl picked out the giant chocolate chip cookie pictured above, and it was a winning move.  Baked just enough so it stays gorgeous and soft and chewy, it's super easy and delicious.

giant chocolate cookie with cacao nibs and flaky salt

Then, of course, it was  The Boy's turn to pick and he went with a traditional brownie.  So similar to his sisters pick, ingredient wise, and even taste wise, but different at the same time.

lee lees double chocolate chunk brownies

Lastly is THE BEST cheesecake possibly ever.  I would have to really really think if it's better than my mom's.  For now let's call it different, but just as good.  It's from Fitwaffle - 5 Ingredient Biscoff Cheesecake.

Base:

200g Lotus Biscuits, finely crushed

60g unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

500g cream cheese, room temp

150g Biscoff spread

100g icing sugar

Topping:

200g Biscoff spread, melted

2 Lotus biscuits, finely crushed

Tin size: 8x8”

 

Mix your crushed cookies and melted butter, and set aside 2 TB of the crumbs.  Please the rest into a parchment lined tin and press down firmly.  Refrigerate the tin while you beat together the filling ingredients until smooth.  Pour over the crust and smooth down.  Pour the melted biscoff over the top and sprinkle with crumbs.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours, until firm.

very easy and very delicious chocolate mousse

 

This chocolate mousse - one of my absolute favorite desserts ever - is so easy - just 4 ingredients! - and so so delicious that even my kids loved it. 

recipe - chocolate mousse

no bake nutella oreo cheesecake

 The Boy has been showing some on/off interest in cooking the past while.  Most of the time when he says he'd like to try to make a certain dish he means at that exact moment in time, not taking into consideration that I don't have the ingredients or maybe it's 8 am on a Saturday and I'm working overtime and can't stop to make bagels from scratch and have them ready in 5 minutes because you are hungry and think 5 minute homemade bagels are a thing.  (If you DO want to make your own bagels, please read this old post of mine from a zillion years ago.  I remember that day and those bagels.  SO good.)

So even though he does throw out ideas for meals, few suggestions actually make it to the preparing stage as he is an impatient 12 year old boy and also forgetful like his mother.

But this one, he would not let go.  Even when I told him the only way we would make it was if he went shopping with me for the ingredients.  He (reluctantly) agreed and we went off to the store to spend eleventy billion dollars on cream cheese, nutella and oreos. 

 When we got home with our ingredients The Girl demanded that she help too, and by the time the cheesecake was in the fridge to chill, the kitchen would have been cleaner if I had just set off a bomb and thrown food directly at the ceiling.  BUT!  That Sunday night for dessert we had the most wonderful decadent cheesecake.

The sad part of this post is that neither The Boy or I can now find the recipe to share with you.  We made this about a month ago from a link on Instagram.  He was sure he'd saved it and I was sure he'd messaged me a copy of the recipe but we both came up empty.  What I can tell you is that it had a (delicious) crust of crushed oreos and butter, 2-3 (expensive) packs of cream cheese, a jar of nutella (although we used a different brand that was on sale, much to the dismay of The Boy), whipped cream and chopped up oreos in the filling.  You were supposed to top the cake with more nutella and more oreos but we didn't have any of either left, and really it didn't need it.

I've spent some time looking for the recipe and can't find anything that I know for sure is the same or similar, but I'm sure you really can't go wrong with any cheesecake with such delicious ingredients. 

peanut butter bread

 This is one from the old Tikety Toks

I added 2/3 cup of chocolate chips.  Pretty tasty.

its easy to make fruit sauces, and cheesecake

 Tis the season for lovely fresh fruit.  A super time of the year.  We are still steering clear of people and places, so no trips to farmers markets or farm stands for us this summer.  

I picked up some blueberries and peaches from Gourmet Greens for us to eat au natural, in smoothies, whatever.  

When the blueberries started to get soft, I turned the rest of them into a blueberry compote by washing them, putting them in a pot with a splash of water, some sugar, a dash of salt and a splash of vanilla.  Once the compote came to a simmer I turned down the heat so it would bubble gently, and let it cook for about 30 minutes, until it was thick and delicious.

I served them with some little no bake cheesecakes - I made the base with crushed digestive biscuits and melted butter, and then used this recipe for the filling.  Easy and delicious!

The rest got used up on toast, mixed in to yogurt, I even threw some into a smoothie.  I love blueberry season.  We planted a blueberry bush in the yard this Spring; it gave us a handful of blueberries before the heat and smoke started to damage it.  If it survives the winter, I am going to plant more.

I also bought a case of peaches,  Heaven!  It seemed like such an extravagant thing to do but they are so delicious.  The Mister is getting concerned that we won't get through them all and will lose some to spoilage, but I won't let that happen.  And to prove it to him I made a peach sauce.

For this one I peeled and sliced up some peaches and added them to a saucepan with some butter and brown sugar and a pinch of salt.  Let it simmer for a few minutes and it's ready to go.  If you wanted to, you could add a splash of alcohol - like some whiskey!  That would be good.

sunday dinner - soup and brownies

 Spring is finally here, although it is still coming and going.... we've had lots of gloomy days and lots of strong wind, which I hate, and not nearly enough rain.  We need a couple of good rainy days to wash away the grime and water the grass and trees.

I was hoping to put a rainy day vibe out there for Mother Nature with this Sunday dinner - a nice light but hearty soup and decadent brownies for dessert, but sadly, there was just more wind.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the greens, orzo and meatball soup I made from Smitten Kitchen.  Absolutely delicious!  I made a few changes; the grocery store didn't have any ground poultry for the meatballs so I used ground pork, and I broiled the meatballs before adding them to the soup.  It just felt right that day.  It was a pretty soup, and so tasty.  The kids enjoyed the meatballs and the orzo, but complained about "the green stuff" (spinach).  They didn't complain too much though, because they had both seen dessert and wanted to stay on our good sides so they would get a piece of - 

 

Chocolate Mousse Brownie - so good!  So easy!

I unfortunately slightly overcooked the brownie, so the crispy edges were VERY crispy, but it was very nice and the mousse on top was mmmmmmm good.

Happy May 1!  May.  I can't believe it.

black forest tart

 I asked The Mister what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and after much consideration he was torn between a black forest cake and "I don't care, you pick".  

Of course I wanted him to have whatever cake he wanted for his birthday, but I am not the biggest chocolate cake fan, I've never made a black forest cake before, and they are multilayered, meaning a big cake, which we really don't need.

I did some googling, thinking I could maybe find a recipe for individual cakes or another twist on the dessert and indeed I found the most perfect twist - a tart!

For the tart dough I used this recipe from Tasty, and for the rest I just did what I wanted to.

Since BFC's are usually finished with chocolate shavings or what have you, I wanted to add more chocolate than just the crust.  I first thought I might melt some chocolate and cover the tart bottom and sides with it, but then I worried it might be too difficult to eat, trying to get your fork through a layer of hardened chocolate.  So instead I whizzed chocolate chips in the food processor down to a powder, and sprinkled that over the tart shell.

 For the cherries, I used frozen ones from Costco, which I like to have in the freezer for smoothies or to sprinkle over yogurt.  I thawed them out for a few hours before assembly.

The kids had wandered in "to help" but most of their help was asking when I was going to make the whipped cream so they could have some, and telling me that the cherries looked bad and they didn't want to eat that part.  So helpful.

I had planned to put more cherries than this on, but I was getting tired of listening to the kids telling me how bad it looked and they wanted pieces without cherries.  

Then I whipped the cream with some sugar and vanilla, and plopped it on top to cover the cherries from my childrens view.

My smallest helper and loudest critic stepped up at this point to sprinkle more chocolate over the top, or just dump it by spoonfuls in the same spot over and over.

Lots of whipped cream, chocolate and cherries - what a dessert!  Super easy and super delicious.

goodies and Christmas

 I was very lucky to receive a lovely bunch of books for Christmas - 

I am very excited about all of them, and I'm sure The Mister was smirking when he heard me on the phone saying how much I love Mexican food and I should cook some soon.  I am looking forward to the Instant pot books as well, anything that can help me cut down on my time in the kitchen is more than welcome.

We binged watched Nadiya Hussain's Netflix show Time to Eat last month, and enjoyed it very very much, and I went online and bookmarked a bunch of recipes to try, including her savory french toast recipe which we've made twice and is so delicious -

 Once I unwrapped Time to Eat, The Mister practically ripped it out of my hands and ran to the kitchen to bake the Olive and Rosemary Crown, with blue cheese inside.  One of the best breads he's baked lately.

We had a traditional dinner again this Christmas, turkey and veg and the fixins.

Mince tarts for dessert, using the wonderful tart dough from 100 Breads.

 With some of the leftover turkey we made Turkey Tetrazzini.  So delicious!  Makes a ton!

Our first dessert of 2021 was the Post Secret Apple Cream Pie.  Delicious, but very sweet.  

 

Hope 2021 is.....off to a start?  The last week has already been full of ridiculous news.  Deep breaths.  

Cornflake Cake

My Boo (eternal BFF) and I had a socially distanced birthday lunch for her this summer, and I decided it was the perfect time to try out a saved dessert recipe, a chocolate cornflake cake.  Well, "cake".  It isn't a true cake.  But there is a lot of chocolate.  What else do you need?

This Chocolate Cornflake Cake (which is apparently a favorite of the Queen's) was very easy to make, although not super pretty.

It did look a little nicer with its ganache topping.  I was so excited about the lunch I forgot to make the salty buttery cornflake topping.

One thing I will say is that this is a FIRM "cake".  The recipe says to let the cake sit at room temperature before serving.  This one sat out for more than an hour and it was still difficult to cut. 

We hacked off a piece to keep and served it for dessert to The Grandpa that night, and he was also a fan.  Another no bake dessert win.

Sunday Dinner - no bake cookie bar

This was a HUGE hit at Sunday dinner.  Everyone loved them and repeatedly asked me to make sure I had saved the recipe so I could make them again (soon).

I made these no bake cookie bars in a slightly bigger pan - 8x10 or so, to make it a bit thinner, which is our preference for bars like this.  You get more that way.

This is a good summertime treat as you don't have to turn on the oven - and who doesn't love peanut butter, oats, graham and chocolate?????

Sunday Dinner - A very good cheesecake

A blurry picture of a deeeelicious cheesecake.

After our sad Thanksgiving cheesecake fail, I had cheesecake on my mind big time.  And also, chocolate.  Always chocolate.

I decided to make a cheesecake for Sunday dinner for my family and then also so I could have some leftovers to take to work for treats.

This cheesecake is easy and delicious and so chocolaty.  Everything you want in a cheesecake.

Recipe:  No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake

a delicious peanut butter and chocolate treat

Man, those guys are work are so lucky to have me.

Here's another treat I made them - chocolate peanut butter no bake cheesecake bars.

These bars are super simple and also super delicious.

It's light and fluffy and dreamy as long as you don't think about calories and fat.

Who doesn't love chocolate?  Or peanut butter?

Some other peanutty faves from over the years:

rocky road peanut clusters

no bake chocolate and peanut butter bars  

peanut butter and bacon spread

gado gado salad

peanut noodle things

Work treats - fudge and cheese dip - separately

The weekly treats are over at work now, thank GOD because seriously, I am bursting out of my clothes over here.

In addition to the churro brownies that I made (and you should too!) I also made fudge and cheese dip, but not served together.

My dad gave me a handful of my mom's recipe a while back; some are familiar and some aren't, and her fudge recipe is definitely one I don't remember.

There's no notes or details on the page so I don't know the origin but I figured it would be a good work treat - easy to prepare and transport, so I went for it.

And here's the only photo I took - cut up and in a storage container.  Nothing but class over here.

5 Minute Fudge

2 TB butter

1 small can evaporated milk (2/3 cup)

1 2/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups mini marshmallows

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Combine first 4 ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to boil and cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.  Stir vigorously for 1 minute, until everything is melted.  Pour into buttered 8" pan.  Cool and cut into squares.

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The next time it was my turn I was ready for a savory treat.  

I found this garlic cheese dip in my binder and it spoke to me.  Loudly.

In my effort to have photos in my posts, here's my kids in some trees.

And here's the link to the dip - roasted garlic whipped feta

I served a dollop with some carrot sticks and crackers.  You could also use it in sandwiches, on toast, with eggs, or eaten directly off a spoon.

A tale of three mousses

Here's the thing.  I finally tried 2 dessert recipes I've been hauling around forever, and there were SO delicious.  My photos though were hideous, even by my low standards.  So, so bad.

I was going to not write about them because I have no accompanying photos and all the blawgs today say you have to have 400 photos of your dish, all from slightly different angles, before you can share anything. 

But here we go.  I'm such a rebel.

Here's a picture I took last Fall downtown at the farmers market.

The first dessert I made was Apple Mousse from a book called The World in my Kitchen.

I wrote this out back in my notebook heyday when we were in Calgary, so this one has been around a long time.

Apple Mousse

adapted from The World in my Kitchen

Peel 4 Granny Smith apples.  Core and cut into 1" pieces.

Melt 3 TB butter in a small pot or pan.  Add apples and a pinch of salt and cook over low heat until soft.  Removed from heat and puree in a food processor with 1/2 cup sugar and 2" piece of ginger.  Let cool.

Beat 1 cup whipping cream until stiff.  Fold in apples.  Chill.

Soooooo delicious!  I subbed out the ginger for some cinnamon but next time I will leave the ginger in.  This dessert is so light and airy and would be perfect for an after dinner treat on a warm day.

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Up next is another moldy oldie that I've had since 2003- 2 0 0 3!  And still hadn't tried.  This one came from Martha Stewart from her Every Day Food magazines.  Loved those.

Here's a photo of my turkeys last month at the Oak Hills Trail.

I'm just going to link to the recipe here  - it is so easy and so decadent.  I didn't make the parfaits, but spooned the 2 mousses side by side in a bowl so everyone could have what they liked.  And boy did we like it.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Parfait

This tasty and long overdue post is making me want to add on to my every growing list of project that will likely never be finished and cook through all the recipes I've been saving in my binder all these years, plus all the ones saved on my computer, and in Pinterest, and.......... 

Oh look!  Something shiny.